Once Again - How Can You Tell If You Are Happy?

Once again, how can you tell that you are happy? Feel you have grown in well-being as measured by:

1. positive affect
2. subjective happiness - how you think you feel after you have recognized and set aside your usual habits of happiness-thinking
3. Satisfied (content) with life

It might seem strange, but people want to be happy and they also want to know they are happy. We humans have a great tendency to compare ourselves with others. Am I doing as well as the next guy or gal? If we are, or even better than someone else, we feel good.

Of course, as we mature, we come to realize that comparing oneself with someone else is neither positive or wise. There will always be someone better off than we are and always someone worse off than we are.

What we need to do is compare ourselves with ourselves. You need to know how you are doing as over against your own standards. Here is where we can tell whether or not we are happier today than last year.

There are three ways to know you are happier than you were (at least these three.)

1. You are acting happier;
2. You think you are happier;
3. You are content with your life.

Let's look at each of these.

1. You are acting happier. I do not mean you are performing for an audience when I speak of "acting." I do mean that you find yourself behaving as if you are happy.

This can include being less ruffled when something untoward happens in you life. I drop an expensive piece of glass the other day and it shattered. I discovered that I did not react with rage against myself or any other as I would have, say, two years ago. It was an accident; it happened; nothing to be done. Move on.

Acting happier can also include letting others have their ego trips without falling into their traps and responding negatively from your own ego. I think you get the picture.

2. You think you are happier. Back to the my glass breaking incident. I actually mentally asked myself why was I not more upset and ranting. The conclusion I drew was that I was in a better place than two years ago, a happier place. I did not "need" to react as I would have over such an accident.

I examined myself to see if I was being a Pollyanna and decided I was not. In other words, I analyzed myself to discover if this was a false facade I was hiding behind or was I genuinely in a different place than previously. Was I faking happiness in order to fulfill some imagined post where I ought to be? Setting aside all of those kind of possibilities as I could discern them, I concluded I was thinking straight.

3. You are content with your life. You are happy when you are content with your life. You conclude that your life is generally good and positive. You are in a solid state of well-being.

Now, please do not mistake me. You may see room for improvement in your life. This about you needs to be changed or that about you needs to be amended. These insights do not mean you are discontent. You may wish to continue to work on your life and living to the betterment of yourself.

That does not mean you cannot be content where you are in this moment, whether that be mentally, spiritually or physically. Let the next moment take care of itself. It will. In this moment, however, you feel fine and respond positively to what is surrounding you, no matter what is encompassing you. As far as the present moment is concerned, you are happy.

Now, combine these three and you will know you are happy. Combine these three and you may understand for yourself that you are happier than you were even two months ago. Work on it.

You can be happy inside and out beginning now. Help yourself by buying and using this book. Happiness - Inside and Out
http://www.createspace.com/3978120
Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009AC62MO

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Robert_Henry_Schwenk